Mental age is a psychological age determined by intelligence or personality tests. It is debatable, but can be useful for older people who feel restricted by their physical age. Mental age can also be used to determine IQ.
Some people may be older or younger than they appear. In some cases, these judgments may be based on appearance. In many cases, however, judgments of age are based on how a person thinks and acts. Mental age is very similar, although it is based on more than one assumption. It is a mental or psychological age that is typically determined by an intelligence or personality test.
This type of age calculation is a debatable topic. Some critics believe it is completely irrelevant and meaningless. They believe that both the methods of calculation and the meanings derived from them are problematic and deceptive.
Others believe that mental calculations are mostly useful for children or the mentally disabled. One reason is that normal adult intelligence is thought to be relatively stable. According to these beliefs, a person’s intelligence at 30 should be the same as it was at 33. However, a 10-year-old should have a different level of intelligence at 12.
Some mental health professionals believe that recognizing mental age can be an advantage. This can be especially true for older people who feel their physical age is definitive and restrictive. If those people were to focus on a younger mental age instead, theories suggest they could experience better physical and psychological well-being. In other words, they may actually be starting to feel younger.
There are several ways to calculate mental age. Sometimes a person will take some type of intelligence or personality test. Then, the test results can be compared with other results from people of the same physical age. In other cases, there may be predetermined factors against which results are measured. In both cases, age is usually determined, which specifies how old a person would be if their physical age were ignored.
Mental age can also be used to determine an intelligence score known as IQ. In these cases, a person is normally subjected to an intelligence test. The numerical result of that test is then applied to an equation that includes the person’s physical age. The solution to the equation equals the person’s intelligence score, which can also be called his or her mental age.
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